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Antarctica ’s Lake Enigma certainly lives up to its name . The permanently methamphetamine - covered lake , call for the peculiar cone shape of debris at its center , was until recently think to be freeze solid . But scientist have find a layer of fresh water hidden beneath the ice - overlay control surface — and it ’s inhabit by a divers cast of microorganisms .
During an expedition toAntarcticafrom November 2019 to January 2020 , researchers survey the lake with flat coat - fall into place radiolocation and detected at least 40 feet ( 12 metre ) of liquid piss under the ice . The researchers then drilled into the ice and sent a television camera to explore the lake ’s depth .
Images showing the floor of Lake Enigma at a depth of 30 feet. Lake Enigma sits beneath the ice in Victoria Land, Antarctica.
The team first tested the water to check where it come from . This was important to establish because the area has gloomy precipitation , high-pitched winds and acute solar vapor , so any piss in Lake Enigma should have dried up long ago .
Based on the chemical composition of salts in the piddle , the research worker hypothesized that the lake ’s water is consistently replenish by the nearby Amorphous Glacier through an obscure underground tract .
Hidden ecosystem beneath Antarctic ice
The scientists witness that , despite being isolated from the air , the waters of Lake Enigma are home to several kinds of microbic living , which cover the bottom of the lake in blobs cognise as microbic mat . Many of these organism are photosynthetic , giving the lake a high concentration of dissolve oxygen .
Some of the mats shape thin , spiky finish on the lakebed . Others resembled " a crumpled compact carpet , sometimes forming orotund amorphous tree - similar structures up to 40 atomic number 96 [ centimetre , or 16 inches ] high and up to 50 to 60 cm [ 20 to 24 in ] in diameter , " the researchers wrote in the survey , write Dec. 3 in the journalCommunications Earth and Environment .
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The bottom of Lake Enigma at a depth of 74 feet.(Image credit: Image cropped from Fig. 4, Smedlile et al/Communications Earth & Enviornment, 2024, CC BY 4.0http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
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The microbial residents included several mintage ofPatescibacteria — tiny , individual - celled organisms that attach themselves to big host prison cell to form either reciprocally good or predatory relationships . These organisms had never before been found in water ice - cover lakes and do n’t unremarkably flourish in gamy - oxygen atmospheric condition , suggesting that thesePatescibacteriamay have developed unparalleled metabolic tricks to survive .
The bottom of Lake Enigma at a depth of 30 feet.(Image credit: Image cropped from Fig. 4, Smedlile et al/Communications Earth & Enviornment, 2024, CC BY 4.0http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
" This finding highlights the complexity and diversity of solid food webs in Antarctic permanently icing - get across lake , with symbiotic and predatory lifestyle a possibility not previously recognise , " the researchers pen in the study .
Environments similar to Lake Enigma exist on icy Moon like Europa or Enceladus . The lake ’s extreme ecosystem could therefore volunteer insights into conditions in places where microbic life sentence might be found on other world , study co - authorStefano Urbini , a geophysicist at the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology in Italy , wrote in a translatedstatement .
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Meltwater inflow to Lake Enigma appears to come from the nearby Amorphous Glacier.(Image credit: Image cropped from Fig. 4, Smedlile et al/Communications Earth & Enviornment, 2024, CC BY 4.0http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
Graphic showing the lakes (blue dots), the rivers (the blue lines), and the areas below sea level (purple) beneath Antarctica’s ice.
